Friday, December 15, 2017

After two long-haul flights and those wonderfully uplifting visits to stay with Offspringette in New Zealand, one of many things I have learned is that no matter how much I love home, the saying goodbye, the long journey and the settling back down again needs careful thought and preparation. It takes me about a month to feel the right way up again.

Last year I had experienced high summer and came back to England for February. It was dark, cold and the prolonged impact of the jet-lag took me by surprise. I was felled by a stinking cough and cold and didn’t feel right for weeks. Luckily I had booked some craft courses for late spring (indigo dyeing at Cowslip Workshops and appliqué pictures with Janet Bolton) so I had things to look forward to, but it was hard, really hard and I wasn’t quite as prepared as I could have been, so this time I thought this aspect through more carefully.

This visit I enjoyed spring. The light and the colour and especially the blossom. I haven't taken you around the Botanic Gardens yet, I'm saving it for deepest darkest January (for us N.Hemisphere souls)

..and I planned the flights so that I would be coming back into daylight rather than darkness from Singapore leaving at 9am rather than midnight, hence the wonderful views over Afghanistan...

I knew that the jet-lag would descend so I had knitting and audio books at the ready and my thanks to Philip Pullman for The Book of Dust -La Belle Sauvage.

I had excursions and meet-ups with friends in the diary...

I had plans in my head for the garden and getting it ready for winter...

And plans in my head for my January craft projects because making has always been my method for getting through those months when all my family bereavements have happened and it only takes the colour and heft of the skies to remind me.

And to assist with all of this I had Emma Mitchell’s new book Making Winter - A Creative Guide for Surviving the Winter Months on pre-order and waiting for me when I arrived home.

If you don’t already know of Emma Mitchell then I urge you to seek her out. As Silver Pebble Emma has created a huge online following with her exquisite nature diary photographs on Instagram and her lively and honest voice on Twitter. Emma also makes this intriguing and very beautiful jewellery from silver clay...

’Silver clay is an astonishing substance, made from the finely ground silver recovered from the printed circuit boards within broken electrical devices.’

I had never heard of it until I started following Emma’s work but I am smitten by this alchemy and can’t wait to try it out. Pressing leaves into the clay and some firing (I’ve left out a few stages along the way, but it seems very doable at home and without a kiln) plunge the object into water and polish it off and the transformation begins to reveal a unique and special piece of silver jewellery.

Making Winter is a cornucopia of sage advice and inspiration. With referenced pieces on the proven benefits of craft activities on serotonin levels I have been really impressed with the solid theory behind the book. This isn’t just another book of recipes and things to make that are nice, it’s a book as therapy and should be available on prescription. I was a Nurse Prescriber, I'd have ditched the entire British National Formulary and dished out Making Winter prn (as necessary) instead and saved the NHS a fortune.

I had always wanted to start a knitting or quilting group for mums with post-natal depression back in my health visitor days. I’d already had my time out of the NHS teaching patchwork and quilting when the children were small (anyone remember The Quilt Loft in Tavistock...it was a moment in my life) and run classes teeming with working people who were desperate for some distractions from the stresses of their jobs (and a lot from the NHS including a surgeon whose stitches were the tiniest I had ever seen) so I knew the benefits. But trying to do anything innovative in a cash-strapped NHS without the foundation of a strong evidence-base was impossible so it never happened. But the evidence is there now and Emma quotes it and uses it wisely in her book.

‘There is evidence that the sight of yellow and red trigger mood-boosting changes in our neuro-transmitters, so it is little wonder that many people experience less join de vivre in the winter months...’

This might be why I unwittingly bought the Knit Angel some dazzling red and yellow wool back from New Zealand for her late October birthday and can you believe she had crocheted it into the most elegant wrap within days.

I love Emma’s idea that a visit to the wool shop, with its beautiful skeins and dazzling array of colours can become ‘the vivid flowering meadow of winter’ akin to a ‘walk around a sun-drenched garden in full bloom in summer’ and with the helpful bursts of neurotransmitters to accompany.

We just knew it didn’t we, but now we have the evidence to prove it. Woolshops are good for you.

I haven’t told you yet about my whistle-stop turn around the Ashford Spinning Shop in New Zealand. Home of the famous Ashford Wheel. The shop had just closed for the day but they took pity and let us in for a dash around

Like many of us Emma is now discovering that her anecdotal findings are being backed up by scientific research..

‘It seems that yarncraft can lead to a relaxation or meditation-like response similar to the induced by yoga, and one study has shown that meditation increases the levels of dopamine, Another neuro-transmitter that is associated with elevated mood.’

And didn’t I just know it but couldn’t prove it...

’Knitting leads to improved feelings of well-being and this effect is markedly increased when it takes place within a group of people.’

I’m sure the same could be said for quilting.

Making Winter is chock-full of ideas and inspiration and crochet...

And of course crochet is my downfall because I’ve never mastered it...yet.

Yes, I know...go to Attic 24 and learn for goodness’ sake woman. I will.

But meanwhile there is preserving leaves in glycerine to be done and Blackberry and Almond Streusel Cake to be baked and feathers to be drawn and nature walks to do with collecting along the way.

I’ve already tried the 5-minute Chocolate Fondant in a Mug (8/10 for my effort, no double cream in the house for the gooey bit in the middle) and made a Winter Woodland Wreath from some gatherings on one of my walks along with making a big pile of autumn out on the lane one day...

The Teasels are picked and adorning the storm porch...

Pending the crochet eureka moment the knitting is on the go because having been allowed into the Ashford Spinning Shop, even though it had just closed, it seemed incumbent on me to buy some wool and this hand-spun, hand-dyed skein leapt into my arms and onto the needles.

In my sights the Hedgerow Bird Snacks and the Apple and Caramel Chelsea Buns.

Apart from the fact that Making Winter is a book to have on my own shelf, it also feels like a book that fulfils Robert Macfarlane’s idea of the book as gift in his little book The Gifts of Reading...

'that the gift can be transformative and that the act of giving encourages the onward circulation of generosity.'

Making Winter is book to give to a friend who might be challenged by the Winter grey or in need of distraction from something else, or in need of soothing through difficult times, or even the book to give yourself. I’ve turned to it over and again in recent weeks, and each time I think I don’t really want to to walk up to the woods on that grey dull gloomy day I take myself off out there and always within five minutes I am singing and the sky seems much brighter..

Comments

After two long-haul flights and those wonderfully uplifting visits to stay with Offspringette in New Zealand, one of many things I have learned is that no matter how much I love home, the saying goodbye, the long journey and the settling back down again needs careful thought and preparation. It takes me about a month to feel the right way up again.

Last year I had experienced high summer and came back to England for February. It was dark, cold and the prolonged impact of the jet-lag took me by surprise. I was felled by a stinking cough and cold and didn’t feel right for weeks. Luckily I had booked some craft courses for late spring (indigo dyeing at Cowslip Workshops and appliqué pictures with Janet Bolton) so I had things to look forward to, but it was hard, really hard and I wasn’t quite as prepared as I could have been, so this time I thought this aspect through more carefully.

This visit I enjoyed spring. The light and the colour and especially the blossom. I haven't taken you around the Botanic Gardens yet, I'm saving it for deepest darkest January (for us N.Hemisphere souls)

..and I planned the flights so that I would be coming back into daylight rather than darkness from Singapore leaving at 9am rather than midnight, hence the wonderful views over Afghanistan...

I knew that the jet-lag would descend so I had knitting and audio books at the ready and my thanks to Philip Pullman for The Book of Dust -La Belle Sauvage.

I had excursions and meet-ups with friends in the diary...

I had plans in my head for the garden and getting it ready for winter...

And plans in my head for my January craft projects because making has always been my method for getting through those months when all my family bereavements have happened and it only takes the colour and heft of the skies to remind me.

And to assist with all of this I had Emma Mitchell’s new book Making Winter - A Creative Guide for Surviving the Winter Months on pre-order and waiting for me when I arrived home.

If you don’t already know of Emma Mitchell then I urge you to seek her out. As Silver Pebble Emma has created a huge online following with her exquisite nature diary photographs on Instagram and her lively and honest voice on Twitter. Emma also makes this intriguing and very beautiful jewellery from silver clay...

’Silver clay is an astonishing substance, made from the finely ground silver recovered from the printed circuit boards within broken electrical devices.’

I had never heard of it until I started following Emma’s work but I am smitten by this alchemy and can’t wait to try it out. Pressing leaves into the clay and some firing (I’ve left out a few stages along the way, but it seems very doable at home and without a kiln) plunge the object into water and polish it off and the transformation begins to reveal a unique and special piece of silver jewellery.

Making Winter is a cornucopia of sage advice and inspiration. With referenced pieces on the proven benefits of craft activities on serotonin levels I have been really impressed with the solid theory behind the book. This isn’t just another book of recipes and things to make that are nice, it’s a book as therapy and should be available on prescription. I was a Nurse Prescriber, I'd have ditched the entire British National Formulary and dished out Making Winter prn (as necessary) instead and saved the NHS a fortune.

I had always wanted to start a knitting or quilting group for mums with post-natal depression back in my health visitor days. I’d already had my time out of the NHS teaching patchwork and quilting when the children were small (anyone remember The Quilt Loft in Tavistock...it was a moment in my life) and run classes teeming with working people who were desperate for some distractions from the stresses of their jobs (and a lot from the NHS including a surgeon whose stitches were the tiniest I had ever seen) so I knew the benefits. But trying to do anything innovative in a cash-strapped NHS without the foundation of a strong evidence-base was impossible so it never happened. But the evidence is there now and Emma quotes it and uses it wisely in her book.

‘There is evidence that the sight of yellow and red trigger mood-boosting changes in our neuro-transmitters, so it is little wonder that many people experience less join de vivre in the winter months...’

This might be why I unwittingly bought the Knit Angel some dazzling red and yellow wool back from New Zealand for her late October birthday and can you believe she had crocheted it into the most elegant wrap within days.

I love Emma’s idea that a visit to the wool shop, with its beautiful skeins and dazzling array of colours can become ‘the vivid flowering meadow of winter’ akin to a ‘walk around a sun-drenched garden in full bloom in summer’ and with the helpful bursts of neurotransmitters to accompany.

We just knew it didn’t we, but now we have the evidence to prove it. Woolshops are good for you.

I haven’t told you yet about my whistle-stop turn around the Ashford Spinning Shop in New Zealand. Home of the famous Ashford Wheel. The shop had just closed for the day but they took pity and let us in for a dash around

Like many of us Emma is now discovering that her anecdotal findings are being backed up by scientific research..

‘It seems that yarncraft can lead to a relaxation or meditation-like response similar to the induced by yoga, and one study has shown that meditation increases the levels of dopamine, Another neuro-transmitter that is associated with elevated mood.’

And didn’t I just know it but couldn’t prove it...

’Knitting leads to improved feelings of well-being and this effect is markedly increased when it takes place within a group of people.’

I’m sure the same could be said for quilting.

Making Winter is chock-full of ideas and inspiration and crochet...

And of course crochet is my downfall because I’ve never mastered it...yet.

Yes, I know...go to Attic 24 and learn for goodness’ sake woman. I will.

But meanwhile there is preserving leaves in glycerine to be done and Blackberry and Almond Streusel Cake to be baked and feathers to be drawn and nature walks to do with collecting along the way.

I’ve already tried the 5-minute Chocolate Fondant in a Mug (8/10 for my effort, no double cream in the house for the gooey bit in the middle) and made a Winter Woodland Wreath from some gatherings on one of my walks along with making a big pile of autumn out on the lane one day...

The Teasels are picked and adorning the storm porch...

Pending the crochet eureka moment the knitting is on the go because having been allowed into the Ashford Spinning Shop, even though it had just closed, it seemed incumbent on me to buy some wool and this hand-spun, hand-dyed skein leapt into my arms and onto the needles.

In my sights the Hedgerow Bird Snacks and the Apple and Caramel Chelsea Buns.

Apart from the fact that Making Winter is a book to have on my own shelf, it also feels like a book that fulfils Robert Macfarlane’s idea of the book as gift in his little book The Gifts of Reading...

'that the gift can be transformative and that the act of giving encourages the onward circulation of generosity.'

Making Winter is book to give to a friend who might be challenged by the Winter grey or in need of distraction from something else, or in need of soothing through difficult times, or even the book to give yourself. I’ve turned to it over and again in recent weeks, and each time I think I don’t really want to to walk up to the woods on that grey dull gloomy day I take myself off out there and always within five minutes I am singing and the sky seems much brighter..

Constants...

Team Tolstoy

Team TolstoyA year-long shared read of War & Peace through the centenary year of Count Lyev Nikolayevich Tolstoy's death, starting on his birthday, September 9th 2010.
Everyone is welcome to board the troika and read along, meeting here on the 9th of every month to chat in comments about the book.

Team Tolstoy BookmarkDon't know your Bolkonskys from your Rostovs?
An aide memoire that can be niftily printed and laminated into a double-sided bookmark.

Port Eliot Festival

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